Worshiping out of the Anointing: Part 1

Isn't it sad when you those foundational truths sneak up and smack you in the face...you know, the ones that you've grown up knowing, the ones, that if asked to preach on, you could do it without notes...I had one of those moments this past weekend.

When I took the job as MD at C3church my Pastor, Dean Sweetman, asked me to put raising people up as one of my top priorities. There's a lot to that request and I was, and continue to be passionate about it. For a long time my heart has been to teach people how to be worshippers, no matter what their function. How to identify what your connection point with God is. It all starts with our own personal relationship with God and flows from there. I heard a pastor preach recently that ministry is the overflow of our time spent with God. WOW! Same goes for anointing. We have no anointing if we haven't spent time with God. Pretty simple right? Well, it goes even deeper.

God gives us grace. Imagine a cup, When you spend time with God he fills that cup up. When you minister (lead worship, preach, prophesy, ect) you pour out some of what's in that cup. You can continue to pour out but eventually you'll be ministering out of your gift instead of anointing. I could say a lot more on that and will at a later time...

I felt the smack this past Sunday morning. We were having a decent morning technically, but I was having to lead the band behind the scenes a good bit and was feeling a little tired from that. I remember asking the Holy Spirit, "Why does this have to be so hard?" And He said..."Because this isn't time to fill yourself up. You're ministering now, pouring yourself out. This is about other people connecting with Me." ouch. A foundational truth I know, but forgot along the way.

Now, this doesn't mean that we won't get a little top off during worship but if we come in on Sunday morning and say, "this is my time to worship" We won't be leading anyone anywhere. We're worship-LEADERS. Whether you're a drummer, BV, sound guy...it matter's if you've got a fresh touch of God on your life. How much more will God move if 20-40 people are operating in the anointing vs one? It's not that God can move any less, He is all-powerful, able to do more than we can imagine...but think about it this way...If you were invited to a party by a really good friend but you weren't close with anyone else attending, you may still go, but the richness of the experience would be vastly different to going to a party with 20 of your closest friends.

It's vitally important that we fill ourselves up before and after we minister, otherwise we're operating out of our gift not the anointing.

Dream Come True

I'm sitting in LA this morning after a full on Sunday. Worship was fantastic yesterday morning in ATL and last night in LA. I can't believe this is the life I have now. I put frequent travel to Asheville and LA last year and almost immediately Asheville happened. We began traveling to Asheville every Sunday afternoon. We'd finish up our two services in Atlanta, grab our gear and our girl, pile in the car and take off up 85. 2 hours and 45ish minutes later we'd arrive. We'd unload, set up, soundcheck, worship, listen to a great message, tear down, eat dinner and drive back home! Crazy? No! We loved every minute of it! Was it hard sometimes? Sure. But look at what we were doing! Week after week, people that had given up on church came back to know God in a genuine way. Their hearts were starting to be restored by the power of God and we were helping to make that happen!

Wow, just got a little teary at the enormity of it all.

1 year later I started traveling to LA once a month. Same thing...morning in ATL...pack up head to the airport and about 6 hours later arrive at LAX. My heart has started connecting to the wonderful people of the LA church. The culture here is completely different to Asheville and ATL, but it's beautiful! Young people that came here to chase a dream are starting to find a brand new one! The loneliness they face when trying to "make it" melts away when they walk in the doors of our church. I overheard two girls last night saying, "everyone is so friendly here!" That's the beginning expression of God's love to them. It's the easiest thing we can do for this crowd to show them a relevant kingdom of God.

I can't help but wonder what the rest of this year will hold...how many more times will I take that 3:05 flight out of ATL? Or...where's the next destination? It really is a beautiful season.

Endurance and Core

I went for a freezing cold run, ok, walk this afternoon. It took a lot for me to even get out in the 30 (feels like 22) degree weather but I test very high for having a naturalist pathway. That's a completely different subject for a different day.

I knew that before I could start this massive week I needed to get outside where I could talk to and hear from God. Calorie burn wasn't the motivation, it was a deep need to connect no matter what the obstacle.

I bundled up and took off up the slightly sloped street, made my left turn and started to jog. That lasted for about 5 minutes when my shins of all things started to ache. It was honestly ok with me. No guilt, just walk for a bit I said to myself. The words started pouring out of me. litterally. I started talking to God like he was walking next to me. I thanked him for getting me through yet another Sunday. One that caused me a major sleep deficit on Saturday night. Realizing that I thanked him for the make up sleep last night, one of those nights that you wake up in the same position you fell asleep in. That is one of the rarest and most precious gifts to me. I asked him to prepare my heart to get everything I could out of fasting and the upcoming worship night. Then I asked him to help people to realize that this week is so much more significant than anyone can imagine. I got stuck on this one for a while. The enormity of it washed gently over me. I found a long sunny stretch and walked back and forth a couple of times interceding for those who were planning on obeying their pastor by fasting (myself included) but not really understanding the impact this could have if gone into with purpose.

It's no small feat for someone to not eat, but people do it all the time with misguided ideas of losing weight. Some people may even fast for the right purpose but forget that it's not just about not eating. Me? I have qualified under both of those categories. I'm still not sure even now how far I'm going to take the fast. But I am getting my heart prepared now. I'm not waiting til Wednesday to start praying. I'm building up to it. Just like training for a triathlon, rehearsing for a big worship event. Preparation is necessary.

I want to get vision for getting vision. I want everything I can get out of this experience. I did a triathlon last September, it was the hardest physical thing I had ever done. 12 weeks before, when I should have been focusing all of my attention to training, I was given the "job" opportunity of a lifetime and my focus had to be divided. There were parts of my training that had to get dropped. Knowing that this was an endurance race, what little time I could scrounge together for training was given completely to "the long haul". Hours on a bike followed by another hour running and trying to fit a swim in here and there. That was all I could muster a couple times a week. I had too many other things needing my attention. What got dropped? My core. I just didn't have time to do something that really wasn't directly contributing to my heart and legs being able to handle 3 hours and 35 minutes of "GO"!

Hmmm...I didn't realize this is what I was going to write about when I started...very cool God!

Dropping my core workout affected me so much more than I could have anticipated. 2 weeks before the race I was out for a run and noticed that I felt, for lack of better words, "floppy". I was getting tired at 3.5, 4 miles. Not good when i've got another 2 to go and hypothetically I would be swimming for 40 minutes and biking for 2 hours before that...I had no power coming from the center of me, no stability, nothing to pull from. My legs were doing all of the work to not only push me forward but to keep me balanced. My legs weren't meant to hold me steady, but because my core was weekend they had no choice.

So here comes the rev. My gift, job, talent, voice, music, are the legs. they are the vehicle to take me somewhere. But my spiritual walk, my connection with my Father is what holds me together, what gives me stability. While it would be easy for me to get wrapped up in the task and rehearsals and even caring for people I will only be able to get so far before I need to spend time "exercising" those spiritual muscles. Core is everything, clearly.

About 15 miles into the 26 mile bike my back started aching, then hurting and then I wanted nothing more than to be off of the bike. I can't say there haven't already been moments I've faced in this short amount of time on staff at C3 as the music director that I have felt the same. But I know something about endurance and core now, how they relate, how when I start having the aches, the sleepless nights, the conflicts it's time to take my focus off of endurance and back on core.